Easter Eggs You May Have Missed in STEVEN UNIVERSE: THE MOVIE

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by Rebecca Sugar. That’s right, Universers, the eagerly anticipated Steven Universe: The Movie debuted last week and it was well worth the wait. The film featured a new villain, new fusions and new songs. A lot of new songs. With Rebecca Sugar being the queen of foreshadowing and Easter Eggs, it wasn’t a shock to see her scatter quite a few fun references for fans to notice throughout the movie.

The movie follows the Crystal Gems, who are ready to celebrate how far they’ve come with a movie musical! Little do they know they’re about to face their worst enemy yet.

So, since it’s been over a week since the movie’s premiere, I thought it would be fun to go on a deep dive into some of the cleverly placed Easter Eggs that fans on social media have pointed out. So let’s get to them and consider this your major spoiler warning!

Storybook Opening

Right off the bat we a nod to Disney with the movie’s opening scene. It features a story book, featuring Steven’s (Zach Callison) name, that opens up to tell a very brief version of Steven’s story. This is a recurring theme that acted as an opening sequence for many famous Disney movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Pinocchio.

This theme even carried on into some Disney shorts including Pigs is Pigs, How to Ride a Horse, Social Lion and The Prince and the Pauper.

Steven’s Bedroom Decor

There’s a lot to unpack here. We see early on in the film that Steven’s house underwent some remodeling. Steven’s room is a bit bigger now and has plenty of interesting trinkets and artwork. First off, we have a portrait that was most likely painted by Vidalia (Jackie Buscarino) depicting an angelic Steven and Garnet (Estelle). Next to that we have a signed ‘Sadie Killer and the Suspects’ poster next to his ‘Star Battlers’ squeal poster.

On the nightstand below the painting a framed picture of his parents Greg (Tom Scharpling) and Rose (Susan Egan). Next to that is a copy of his Dad’s album ‘Space Train to the Cosmos’. We also get another framed photo of Garnet, Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) and Pearl (Deedee Magno).

On Steven’s nightstand, we have a Cookie Cat alarm clock. On the shelf above the bed we have a small pile of folded star t-shirts, a framed picture of his friend Connie (Grace Rolek) – rocking an outfit similar to Lana’s in Future Boy Conan – and a framed photo of the Crystal Temple.

We also see some Samurai DVDs, a Mood Goddess Statue for the Lunar Sea Spire on top of his ‘World’s Best Stephan’ Mug, Rose’s VHS tape to Steven and some Explorer Gal merch.

On the opposite side of the room we can see a PS2 system next to some video games, including Katamari Damacy! On the wall above the staircase we see some artwork that looks like Peridot (Shelby Rabara) next to an old-timey couples photo of Ruby (Charlyne Yi) and Sapphire (Erica Luttrell) and another poster for ‘Lonely Blade’, one of Steven’s favorite movie franchises.

Downstairs

When Steven breaks out in the song Happily Ever After he rolls downstairs to the living room, which also has plenty of callbacks to previous episodes. By the door, we’ve got Steven’s beloved cheeseburger backpack (from the episode of the same name). On the little shelf above the couch we can see Steven’s sunglasses next to his T-shirt canon (both from”Shirt Club”). On the shelf in the back we see Rose’s broken sword on display, his baseball and glove (“Hit the Diamond”) and a GameCube.

On the wall behind Steven we can see the portrait of Rose has been moved next to a photo of Cat Steven, the one eyed calico cat Garnet adopted in the episode “Pool Hopping”.

The Ube Roll

As the song carries on we get a quick glimpse of Lars (Matthew Moy). We see that he’s still hanging out with the Off-Colors, not as their space captain, but as an employee at the Big Donut which now features Ube Rolls! This is a call back to the episode “The Good Lars” where Lars strives to perfect an Ube Roll recipe to bring to a cool kid’s party.

Spinel

Okay, now let’s check out our villain. We learn that Spinel (Stiles) has a bone to pick with Rose a.k.a Pink Diamond because she abandoned her 6000 years ago. Spinel and Pink used to be playmates but when Pink was finally given her own colony, she grew bored of Spinel. So, under the guise of playing a game, Pink had Spinel stand in the same spot alone for 6000 years. When Pink never returned and she saw Steven’s universe-wide message of peace, Spinel basically snapped and went to Earth to seek revenge.

Spinel’s animation slightly differs from everyone else’s. It comes across as more fluid and loose. It’s possible this is a nod to the “rubber hose” animation style, which was the first animation style that became standardized in the American animation industry.

It’s also possible Spinel’s rubber like limbs were influenced by Monkey D. Luffy, the main character of One Piece, whose limbs also have stretching powers. One Piece just so happens to be Rebecca Sugar’s favorite manga and anime. Speaking of anime! When Spinel reveals and uses her scythe she looks an awful lot like Maka Albarn from Soul Eater.

Spinel’s Reboot

After the first battle with Spinel we learn that everyone is basically rebooted thanks to Spinel’s Gem Rejuvenator. The Gems are stripped of their memories, causing them to revert to their original selves. Same goes for Spinel who’s original design seems to parody Mickey Mouse right down to the over sized books, gloves, pants and heart shaped pig tails imitating his mouse ears.

As for the design we saw during the battle? One can’t help but draw a comparison to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit who’s also known as the “forgotten toon.”

Garden Flowers

During her song “Drift Away” we get a time lapse of Spinel standing perfectly still in the garden. In the beginning of the lapse we see the garden perfectly intact, complete with flowers in bloom. This includes the blue flowers to the right of Spinel in the photo above, they are Scorpion grasses but they are better known as “Forget-me-Not’s”. Ouch, Rebecca.

Peridot’s Screen

Halfway through the movie Peridot is explaining how doomed the Earth is thanks to Spinel’s Injector. In one quick shot we get a quick look at her home screen which has a couple of minimized tabs. One is an episode of Peridot’s favorite soap opera, ‘Camp Pining Hearts ‘, and the other is a computer game that looks an awful lot like SkiFree, the single-player skiing game.

Finale Outfits

The film ends in a very Broadway style in which Steven, Connie, Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst and Greg dawns tuxedos with feathers as they sing the finale. These suits might look familiar because those exact designs were featured on an SDCCSteven Universe poster from 2016!

What was your favorite Steven Universe: The Movie Easter Egg this on this list? Were there any we missed? Let us know!

A bona fide earthling who finds some comfort in books, movies and coffee. Lots of coffee. Has several regrettable tattoos and her knowledge of horror movies is probably better than yours but she won't hold it against you; it's proof that she has way too much free time. Currently in limbo but manages to occasionally crawl out of it long enough to write for Geek Girl Authority.